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ARMY  RIFLES 


A  PAPER  RIfAD  BEFORt; 


HE  OHIO  COMMANDERY  OF  THE  LOYAL  LEGION, 


FEBRUARY   5,  1^X)8, 


BY 


COMPANION  FREDERICK  W.  HINKLE 


in  2007  with  funding  from 
IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


\i^fmtfw:nrcmjB:afgmmm\3m 


[eKiiimaifaii 


/' 


^apj^v 


of 


^otnpanioxx    ^vebevivk   ^HT.  pinkie, 

of 

©injcinnati,  CDljio, 

of  ^l)t   gOH^A    Se0l0«, 
February  5,  1908, 


tis- 


ARMY   RIFLES. 


The  events  of  the  past  ten  years,  particularly  the  Spanish  and 
Japanese  Wars  and  the  present  cruise  of  our  great  fleet  have  aroused 
in  the  American  people  an  interest  in  modern  implements  and  methods 
of  warfare,  such  as  has  not  been  in  evidence  since  the  dark  days  of 
our  great  Civil  War. 

We  are  essentially  a  peace-loving  Nation.  There  is  probably  no 
"Great  Power"  in  the  world  whose  soldiers  and  sailors  are  so  rarely 
seen  upon  the  streets,  and  yet  there  is  a  latent  military  spirit  in  the 
people,  which  long  years  of  peace  and  prosperity  cannot  eliminate.  So 
in  these  latter  years,  since  our  power  has  reached  out  into  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth,  and  met  and  clashed  with  that  of  other  nations, 
that  spirit  has  manifested  itself  in  a  widespread  interest  in  our  army 
and  navy,  and  their  equipment  and  fitness  to  protect  our  national  honor. 

Our  attention  having  thus  been  attracted  to  military  armaments, 
possibly  some  little  discussion  of  past  and  present  army  rifles  principally 
with  reference  to  those  used  by  the  United  States  army  may  prove 
interesting  and  of  some  profit,  especially  if  a  few  of  the  different 
weapons  referred  to,  are  placed  before  you  for  inspection.  There  is 
here  a  number  of  guns,  mostly  rifles,  which  illustrate  roughly  the  evol- 
ution of  the  military  rifle  since  the  American  Revolution.  But  a  few 
preliminary  words,  briefly  showing  the  growth  of  the  use  of  gun- 
powder and  the  gun,  and  some  of  the  inventions  connected  therewith, 
may  be  interesting. 

The  introduction  of  gun-powder  into  Central  Europe  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  of  the  Feudal  system.  It  was  an  introduction  into 
use,  not  an  invention,  for  the  properties  of  gun-powder  were  well 
known  to  Southern  Europe,  Spain  and  Greece  for  centuries  before,  and 
to  Asiatic  nations  especially  China  and  India  as  far  back  as  the  days 
of  Moses,  if  the  ancient  writers  are  correctly  translated  and  interpreted. 
The  invention,  therefore,  is  a  matter  which  it  would  be  idle  to  discuss. 
That  Alexander  the  Great  met  with  it,  to  his  misfortune,  in  India,  and 
that  the  Chinese  used  it  as  we  do  now,  hundreds  of  years  before  the 
Christian  Era,  are  facts  which  are  rather  generally  admitted. 

There  is  good  evidence  extant  that  Berthold  Schwartz,  a  monk  of 
Friburg  in   Germany,   deserves   the   credit   of  first   introducing  gun- 

ivil57371 


powder  into  Central  Europe.  He  obtained  his  knowledge  from  a  book 
published  by  Roger  Bacon  in  1267.  Bacon  got  his  information  in 
Spain,  where  he  read  the  book  by  Marcus  Graecus  published  A.  D.  846, 
and  entitled  "Liber  Ignium,"  which  gives  the  formula  for  gun-powder 
precisely  as  our  black  powder  is  made.  This  book  of  Graecus  is  pre- 
served in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris.  Schwartz  undoubtedly  deserves 
the  credit  for  introducing  gun-powder  into  Central  Europe,  for  it  came 
into  general  use  shortly  after  he  published  his  alleged  discovery.  This 
was  in  1320. 

With  great  vehemence  did  the  good  Knights  resist  the  innovation 
in  war-fare  thus  rudely  forced  upon  them  by  the  use  of  fire-arms. 
Encased  in  almost  impenetrable  armor  the  bold  Sir  Knight  was  accus- 
tomed to  gallop  furiously  about  the  field  of  battle  seeking  whom  he 
might  slay.  Rarely  was  he  killed  or  even  wounded  by  foot  soldiers. 
Even  though  unhorsed  and  unable  to  rise  from  the  weight  of  their 
armor,  yet  as  one  writer  says,  "They  could  only  be  killed  after  they  and 
their  armor  had  been  broken  up  like  so  many  lobsters,  with  wood- 
cutter's axes.  Well  might  James  1st.  remark  that  defensive  armor  was 
a  double  protection,  preventing  the  bearer  from  being  injured  or  from 
injuring  others." 

"■ —  Gun-powder  put  an  end  to  this  immunity.  The  veriest  varlet 
armed  with  the  arquebus  could  bring  low  the  doughty  Knight  in  his 
armor  of  proof,  and  the  Knights  who  were  brave  as  lions  as  long  as  they 
could  not  be  killed,  didn't  relish  it  at  all.  Armor  was  thickened  until 
the  champion  arrayed  for  the  fray  resembled  nothing  so  much  as  a 
modern  iron-clad,  and  sometimes  smothered  in  his  harness.  But  in 
vain ;  the  bullet  pierced  his  coat  of  mail  and  made  him  a  back  number. 

But  still  the  fire-arm  had  not  reached  the  stage  when  it  could  be 
depended  upon  to  win  battles  even  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  was  exasperatingly  slow  in  loading,  so  slow  that  in  one  battle  about 
the  middle  of  that  century,  the  slowest  soldiers  managed  to  fire  only 
seven  shots  in  a  battle  lasting  from  noon  to  eight  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing. This  was  a  heavy  gun  fired  by  a  match  held  in  the  hand,  but 
shortly  afterwards  the  match  lock  and  wheel  lock  came  generally  into 
use  and  greatly  increased  the  rapidity  of  fire.  The  wheel  lock  was  the 
first  flint  lock  invented,  and  its  principle  appears  to  have  originated 
from  the  domestic  use  of  flint  and  steel  to  strike  fire.  It  first  came  into 
use  in  1515. 

From  the  wheel  lock,  by  a  natural  improvement,  came  the  flint- 


hammer-lock  in  1630,  a  Spanish  invention,  the  use  of  which  was  contin- 
ued for  over  two  centuries.  The  British  Army  used  a  flint  lock  as  late 
as  1842,  as  also  did  the  United  States.  They  are  still  manufactured  and 
exported  to  half  civilized  countries,  it  being  considered  inadvisable  to 
give  the  natives  too  good  a  weapon. 

About  1807  a  Scotchman  named  Forsythe  making  use  of  an  idea 
previously  put  in  practice  by  the  French,  patented  a  gun  in  which  the 
percussion  system  was  first  embodied,  and  thus  another  and  perhaps 
the  greatest  step  of  all  up  to  that  time,  was  taken  in  the  development  of 
our  modern  rifle.  "But  it  was  12  years  later  before  the  percussion  cap 
as  we  know  it,  appeared ;  during  this  period  guns  were  made  with  the 
fulminate  in  the  form  of  a  pill  or  capsule,  the  flash  pan  of  the  flint  lock 
being  retained  for  holding  the  pill." 

The  earliest  fire-arms  were  all  smooth  bore  weapons,  some  of  them 
tremendously  bell-mouthed,  as  the  blunder-buss,  and  designed  to  fire  a 
number  of  balls  after  the  manner  of  our  shot-guns.  But  about  1498, 
some  unknown  genius,  a  German  as  all  writers  agree,  hit  upon  the 
scheme  of  grooving  the  interior  of  the  gun  barrel,  not  however  with 
spiral  grooves  but  with  straight  parallel  ones.  His  only  purpose  was 
to  facilitate  the  operation  of  loading  and  prevent  leading  and  fouling 
of  the  barrel,  for  it  was  thought  that  the  dirt  of  the  barrel  would  settle 
in  these  grooves. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  some  other  blunder- 
ing genius,  probably  Kutter  of  Nuremberg,  thought  that  twisted  or 
spiral  grooves  would  take  up  more  dirt  than  straight  ones,  and  tried 
them,  when  to  his  astonishment  he  found  that  his  bullet  had  an  unheard 
of  range  and  accuracy.  Thus  the  idea  of  rifling  gun-barrels  was  first 
touched  upon.  A  few  of  them  were  made  and  given  to  a  company  of 
cavalry,  called  ''Carabins,"  from  which  circumstance  they  took  the 
name  "carbines." 

It  was  over  a  hundred  years  before  this  idea  was  actively  adopted 
in  military  arms,  but  in  1631,  William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse-armed  some 
of  his  troops  with  straight  grooved  rifle  carbines ;  Frederick  the  Great 
used  them  in  the  "Seven  Years  War,"  and  Sweden  and  France  adopted 
them  shortly  thereafter,  but  conservative  old  England  had  only  supplied 
one  small  corps  of  her  army  with  the  rifle  at  the  time  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution ;  yet,  in  1742,  Robins  had  worked  out  the  principle  of 
the  rifle  and  demonstrated  that  a  ball  revolving  on  the  axis  of  the  gun 
had  greater  accuracy  and  longer  flight. 


6 

As  one  studies  the  evolution  of  the  modern  fire-arm  one  is  more 
and  more  impressed  with  the  truth^  unflattering  as  it  may  be  to  nine- 
teenth century  invention — that  the  mediaeval  gun  maker  had  hit  upon 
and  elaborated  to  a  remarkable  degree  all  the  ideas,  with  the  exception 
of  two  or  three,  which  our  modern  gun  makers  have  adopted  and  use 
and  profess  to  have  invented.  In  the  British,  Paris  and  other  European 
museums,  are  ancient  arms  of  the  hammerless  pattern,  with  safety 
catches,  and  indicators  on  the  triggers,  revolvers  and  revolving  guns 
of  from  three  to  twelve  chambers  antedating  the  introduction  of  the 
flint-lock,  very  creditable  breech  loaders,  double  barreled  guns,  and 
most  curious  to  relate,  repeating  muskets  firing  as  many  as  eight  shots 
without  reloading,  one  in  particular  almost  precisely  identical,  with 
the  exception  of  the  metallic  cartridge,  with  the  Spencer  rifle  used  in 
our  civil  war  and  since. 

Even  the  idea  of  the  Gattling  and  Nordenfeldt  guns  was  touched 
upon  and  patents  issued  for  weapons  of  this  type. 

Henry  the  Eighth  had  a  breech-loading  arquebus  somewhat  similar 
in  construction  and  method  of  loading  to  the  Snider  and  Winchester 
rifles  of  our  day.  In  1808,  a  Paris  gunmaker  invented  a  percussion 
breech  loading  gun  in  which  the  cap  was  affixed  to  the  breech  of  the 
cartridge.  A  needle  of  steel  pierced  this  cap  when  the  trigger  was 
pulled,  igniting  the  charge.  A  slight  modification  of  this  gun  in  the 
shape  of  the  "Prussian  Needle  Gun,"  won  the  Franco-Prussian  war. 

Not  stopping  to  cite  further  examples  of  ancient  inventions  which 
have  been  slightly  modified  and  adopted  by  modern  gun-makers,  and 
their  name  is  legion,  but  coming  at  once  to  the  American  "War  of 
Independence,"  we  find  the  British  army  using  as  its  regulation  arm 
the  flint-lock  smooth  bore,  known  familiarly  as  "Brown  Bess"  or 
"Queen's  Arm."  The  1x)re  was  over  three  quarters  of  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter and  the  bullet,  which  was  generally  somewhat  smaller  than  the  bore, 
was  wrapped  in  a  loosely  fitting  patch  which  formed  a  cartridge.  Its 
effective  ragge  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards.  Crude  as  this 
weapon  was,  and  far  behind  the  inventions  of  the  times,  yet  its  simplic- 
ity and  ease  of  loading,  as  compared  with  the  rifle  of  the  day,  made  it  a 
most  serviceable  miHtary  weapon.  With  the  exception  of  the  change 
from  flint  to  percussion  lock  it. was  retained  as  the  regulation  arm  of 
the  British  Army  until  about  1850. 

One  corps  of  the  British  army,  however,  during  this  war,  was 
armed  with  a  breech-loading  gun,  known  as  the  Ferguson  musket.     It 


was  a  flint  lock,  and  the  breech  mechanism  consisted  of  a  large  screw 
running  perpendicularly  through  the  breech  and  attached  to  the  trig- 
ger guard.  When  the  guard  was  turned,  the  screw  sank  down  through 
the  breech,  leaving  an  opening  in  the  top  of  the  barrel  through  which 
the  charge  was  inserted.  The  screw  was  then  raised  to  its  place  closing 
the  barrel.    One  of  these  is  now  a  loan  exhibit  in  our  National  Museum. 

Our  fore-fathers,  however,  less  favored  than  their  opponents,  had 
to  depend  upon  a  variety  of  weapons.  Although  many  of  the  regi- 
ments had  guns  of  the  "Brown  Bess"  type,  yet  the  great  majority  of 
the  men,  at  first,  carried  their  own  weapons^  shot-guns,  muskets  of 
every  size  and  description  and  some  rifles.  The  slope  of  Bunker  Hill 
bore  witness  to  the  destructiveness  of  these  weapons  at  short  range. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  Putnam  made  his  men  hold  their  fire  until  they 
could  see  the  whites  of  the  red-coats'  eyes.  Later,  through  the  good 
offices  of  Lafayette,  the  United  States  received  large  supplies  from  the 
L>ench  Government  of  the  Charleville  Model  1763,  a  heavy,  smooth 
bore  flint  lock,  and  after  the  Springfield  and  Harper's  Ferry  armories 
were  established  in  1795-6,  this  continued  to  be  the  model  for  the  guns 
manufactured  there.  As  early  as  1804  rifles  of  this  type  were  produced 
at  Harper's  Ferry. 

Yet  there  were  arms  in  the  Revolutionary  forces  which  far  sur- 
passed anything  that  the  British  had — or  had  ever  encountered. 

An  article  in  a  recent  magazine  on  the  subject  of  the  birth  of  the 
American  Army  says :  "The  rifle  had  been  introduced  into  Pennsyl- 
vania about  1700  by  Swiss  and  Palatine  immigrants  and  was  made  by 
them  at  various  border  towns  in  that  colony  20  years  before  the 
Revolution.  Our  frontiersmen,  appreciating  the  superior  accuracy  of 
the  grooved  barrel  adopted  the  rifle  at  once  and  improved  upon  the 
German  model  with  such  ingenuity  that  within  a  few  years  they  had 
produced  a  new  type  of  fire-arm,  superior  to  all  others,  the  American 
backwoods  rifle."  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  rifle  was  used 
only  in  Central  Europe  and  along  the  Western  frontiers  of  our  central 
and  southern  states.  Armed  with  this  back-woods  rifle  the  men  of  the 
west  came  to  the  assistance  of  their  eastern  brethren,  and  were  organ- 
ized into  regiments  of  riflemen,  which  cost  the  British  dear  before  the 
long  war  was  over.  They  were  employed  as  sharp  shooters,  and  ere  long 
the  British  pickets  found  that  it  was  unsafe  to  expose  their  heads  even 
at  a  distance  of  400  yards.  The  same  writer  quoted  above  says :  "So 
frequent  became  the  return  of  officers,  pickets  and  artillerymen  shot 


8 

at  long  range,  that  Edmund  Burke  exclaimed  in  Parliament,  'Your 
officers  are  swept  off  by  the  rifles  if  they  show  their  noses.'  " 

In  the  British  camp,  the  riflemen,  "clad  in  their  Indian  hunting 
shirts,"  were  called,  ''Shirt-tail  men  with  their  cursed  twisted  guns, 
the  most  fatal  widow  and  orphan  makers  in  the  world."  With  this 
rifle-corps,  which  adopted  Indian  methods,  began  the  modern  system 
of  warfare,  fighting  in  open  order  as  skirmishers,  taking  advantage  of 
every  available  cover,  and  picking  off  the  officers  or  particular  men. 
The  first  pitched  battle  in  which  rifles  were  exclusively  used  by  one  of 
the  Armies,  was  at  King's  Mountain,  where  the  British,  under  Fergu- 
son, the  inventor  of  the  breech-loader  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  witb 
which  some  of  them  were  armed,  met  the  Tennessee  back-woods  rifle- 
men. Ferguson  was  killed  with  390  of  his  men  and  lost  716  prisoners, 
while  the  total  loss  of  the  Americans  was  47  killed  and  60  \younded, 
although  our  forces  charged  up  a  mountain  far  more  difficult  than  the 
heights  of  Bunker  Hill  or  Fredericksburg. 

During  the  years  that  elapsed  between  the  Revolution  and  the  War 
of  1812  one  great  improvement  in  military  arms  was  brought  out, 
namely  the  invention  of  the  percussion  system,  by  means  of  which  the 
flint  lock  and  priming  pan  were  partially  done  away  with,  at  least  for 
military  guns.  At  first  the  fulminate  was  placed  in  the  old  priming 
pan  and  struck  by  the  hammer.  Later  it  was  placed  between  two  small 
pieces  of  paper  forming  a  disk  like  the  caps  now  used  in  the  toy  pistol. 
Then  the  idea  of  placing  the  fulminate  in  a  copper  or  tin  cup  which 
fitted  on  the  nipple  of  the  gun  was  evolved.  The  first  mentioned  was 
probably  the  plan  used  to  fire  certain  guns  manufactured  for  the  United 
States  Army  at  Harper's  Ferry,  during  the  years  of  the  War  of  1812. 
One  of  them  I  have  here,  but  unfortunately  it  has  probably  been  altered 
to  use  caps.  This  is  a  smooth-bore,  beautifully  brass-mounted  and 
having  a  box  to  hold  the  fulminate.  On  the  lock  plate  is  the  inscrip- 
tion "Harper's  Ferry,  1814."  The  extreme  weight  of  the  gun  at  the 
muzzle  end  of  the  barrel,  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  it.  It  was  pat- 
terned after  the  sporting  gun  of  the  day.  With  such  guns  as  this  the 
Americans  were  no  better  armed  than  their  British  opponents,  and  the 
chances  are  that  few  of  our  soldiers  had  anything  but  the  old  style  flint- 
lock. But  there  were  many  descendents  of  the  old  Revolutionary  rifle- 
men who  were  true  to  their  family  traditions,  and  when  called  upon 
to  defend  their  country  carried  with  them  their  back-woods  rifles  and 
used  them  well.    One  writer,  speaking  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans, 


9 

says,  at  this  battle,  "the  backwoodsmen  intrenched  on  an  open  plain  it 
is  true,  but  outnumbered  two  to  one  by  the  pick  of  Wellington's  veter- 
ans from  the  Peninsular  War,  killed  700  of  the  enemy,  wounded  1,400 
and  took  500  prisoners,  while  themselves  losing  but  8  men  killed  and 
13  wounded."  It  reads  like  an  account  of  some  naval  battle  of  the 
late  Spanish-American  War,  in  the  matter  of  disparity  of  losses. 

It  may  seem  strange,  seeing  the  success  of  the  rifle  as  used  by 
small  bodies  of  troops  in  these  two  wars  that  the  United  States  and 
other  Governments  did  not  use  it  exclusively  to  arm  their  men.  For 
this  apparent  neglect  there  were  several  weighty  reasons,  the  principal 
one  being  the  difficulty  and  slowness  of  loading.  In  order  that  the 
spherical  bullet  might  take  the  rifling  it  was  made  quite  as  large  as  the 
bore,  and  when  placed  in  the  muzzle  could  be  forced  down  through  the 
barrel  only  by  the  exertion  of  great  force,  causing  the  lead  to  spread 
into  the  grooves.  Other  methods  of  loading  were  tried  in  order  to 
force  the  ball  to  take  the  rifling,  such  as  loading  at  the  breech  with  a 
ball  a  trifle  larger  than  the  caliber,  using  a  ball  with  a  rim  to  fit  the 
rifling,  surrounding  the  ball  with  a  patchen  which  followed  the  grooves, 
and  having  a  shoulder  or  an  iron  stem  in  the  base  of  the  barrel  upon 
which  the  ball  rested  and  could  be  hammered  into  the  grooves.  The 
latter  was  Thouvenin's  great  improvement  in  rifles.  All  of  these  made 
slow  loading,  leaded  the  gun  rapidly  and  destroyed  the  shape  of  the 
bullet,  thus  ifijuring  its  carrying  qualities  and  accuracy.  The  recoil 
also  was  very  great  and  the  gun  necessarily  heavy.  At  a  time  when 
battles  were  fought  almost  hand  to  hand  a  light  strong  gun  and  one 
quickly  loaded  was  very  desirable. 

That  the  percussion  cap  was  not  generally  adopted  by  the  United 
States  as  soon  as  invented  is  another  surprising  fact.  Although  this 
system  had  been  well  elaborated,  and  proved  more  effective  and  easier 
of  manipulation  than  the  old  flint-lock,  yet  the  United  States  held  on 
to  the  latter  at  least  as  late  as  1838.  In  that  year  there  was  published 
a  book  entitled  "Abstract  of  Infantry  Tactics  for  use  of  the  Militia  of 
the  United  States,"  the  avowed  purpose  of  which  was  to  train  the 
militia  in  the  tactics  and  use  of  the  weapons  of  the  regular  army.  This 
manual  was  prepared  under  an  Act  of  Congress  by  General  Winfield 
Scott  and  others,  and  amongst  other  features  gives  careful  instruction 
on  how  to  handle,  load  and  fire  the  army  weapon,  a  flint-lock  musket 
with  priming  pan  and  paper  cartridge.  It  also  contains  a  separate  set 
of  instructions  for  light  infantry  and  riflemen.    These  carried  flint-lock 


10 

rifles.  So  that  while  the  continental  Europeans,  notably  Prussia  and 
Sweden  were  arming  their  troops  with  breech-loading,  percussion  cart- 
ridge rifles,  our  Government  and  the  British  were  conservatively  hold- 
ing on  to  the  smooth-bore  or  rifled  muzzle-loading  flint-lock.  The 
Prussians  adopted  the  needle  gun  in  1841  and  used  it  with  winning 
effect  in  their  wars  of  the  60's  and  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  It 
will  be  briefly  described  later. 

That  there  were  good  reasons  for  not  adopting  the  percussion  cap 
system  is  very  probable,  one  being  that  the  Government  was  experi- 
menting with  Maynard's  continuous  priming  contrivance,  patented  in 
1845.  There  were  good  reasons  also  why  the  breech-loader  of  the  day 
was  a  faulty  weapon.  Two  inventions  shortly  to  be  made  were  neces- 
sary to  make  a  rifle  loading  at  the  breech  a  success.  Its  great  fault  was 
that  using  as  it  did  a  paper  or  linen  cartridge  which  was  consumed  in 
the  discharge,  the  breech  action  became  clogged  and  fouled  with  burnt 
paper,  powder  dirt  and  smut,  so  that  after  a  few  shots  it  became  almost 
or  quite  impossible  to  close  the  breech.  Then,  too,  the  gases  escaped 
through  the  chinks  of  the  mechanism,  lessening  the  range  of  the  bullet 
and  sometimes  burning  the  soldier's  face  or  hands.  At  times  also  the 
breech  lock  would  blow  out  and  nearly  fracture  the  holder's  skull. 
Numbers  of  such  breech-loading  rifles  were  invented  by  the  Americans 
during  the  years  that  elapsed  from  1812  to  1860,  notably  the  Gilbert 
Smith  rifle  which  was  taken  to  England  in  1838  and  submitted  to  that 
Government,  but  rejected  because  of  the  escape  of  gas  at  the  breech. 

An  interesting  English  development  of  the  idea  of  rifling  during 
these  years  was  the  Lancaster  Patent.  Lancaster  evolved  the  idea  of 
constructing  a  smooth  bore  barrel,  which  itself  twisted  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  grooves  of  the  rifle.  While  this  gun  was  as  effective  as  most 
of  the  rifles  of  the  day,  it  has  proved  impracticable  as  the  power  of 
explosives  has  increased. 

Our  government  offered  premiums  for  the  invention  of  good  effec- 
tive breech-loaders  and  later  of  magazine  rifles,  which  materially  stimu- 
lated the  production  of  such  weapons. 

Meanwhile  men  were  perfecting  and  inventing  two  ideas  which 
were  destined  to  revolutionize  gun  making  and  make  the  rifle  the  ter- 
rible weapon  it  now  is.  From  the  very  inception  of  the  use  of  the 
percussion  cap  there  had  been  efforts  to  perfect  a  cartridge  which 
should  hold  its  own  fulminate,  and  which  should  do  away  with  the 
additional  movement  necessary  to  prime  the  gun.    As  long  as  the  cap 


11 

was  separate  from  the  cartridge  it  was  found  necessary  to  use  a  self- 
consuming  cartridge,  which  fouled  the  breech  rapidly.  The  first  cart- 
ridges that  contained  their  own  caps  were  also  paper  or  cloth  as  for 
instance  that  used  in  the  needle  gun  where  the  cap  was  set  on  a  wad  at 
the  base  of  the  bullet  and  the  needle  had  to  pass  through  the  powder 
charge  to  explode  the  cap.  This  gun,  as  an  old  German  soldier  of  this 
city  has  told  me,  was  useless  after  several  dozen  shots,  unless  cleaned. 
In  1836,  however,  a  Frenchman  patented  a  heavy  paper  cartridge  with 
metal  base  which  contained  the  cap.  From  this  cartridge  dates  the 
success  of  the  breech-loader,  for  all  pin-fire  guns. still  use  the  same 
type  of  cartridge  except  that  in  the  course  of  time  metal  cases  have 
come  into  use  instead  of  paper.  To  Messrs.  Smith  &  Wesson,  Ameri- 
can revolver  makers  of  great  renown,  is  due  the  credit  of  perfecting 
the  metallic  cartridge.  Maynard,  the  inventor  of  the  continuous  primer, 
invented  it. 

The  other  great  invention  of  these  years  was  the  Minie  Ball.  The 
old  plan  of  loading  a  muzzle-loading  rifle  had  been  as  I  have  shown 
laborious  and  productive  of  much  time  and  energy  wasted.  So  invent- 
ors set  to  work  to  make  it  easier  by  altering  the  ball.  Several  belted 
balls  were  tried,  that  is  bullets  with  projecting  belts  around  their  bases, 
which  were  forced  into  the  rifling  by  ramming,  but  these  were  not  a 
success.  Other  plans  were  tried,  but  it  was  not  until  1848  when  Minie 
invented  his  hollow-based  grooved  ball  that  the  difficult  problem  was 
solved.  Minie  has  generally  received  the  credit  for  the  invention,  al- 
though it  is  a  fact  that  the  principle  of  the  expanding  ball  had  been  fully 
explained  in  1836,  by  an  Englishman  named  Greener,  and  it  is  probable 
that  Minie  had  read  this  man's  book. 

The  Minie  ball,  so  familiar  in  shape  now,  contained  in  its  hollow 
base"  an  iron  cup  or  wedge,  and  later  a  wooden  plug,  which  upon  the 
discharge  was  driven  farther  up  into  the  hollow,  thus  expanding  the 
base  of  the  bullet  which  had  several  circular  notches,  into  the  grooves 
of  the  rifling.  This  is  the  regulation  type  of  bullet  now,  although  the 
iron  cup  and  notches  on  the  base  have  disappeared,  being  proved  un- 
necessary. 

To  the  invention  of  the  metallic  cartridge  and  the  Minie  ball  the 
success  of  the  breech-loader  is  entirely  due.  But  for  many  years  after 
these  inventions  had  been  perfected  the  United  States  were  not  ready 
to  adopt,  as  their  regulation  arm,  a  gun  loading  at  the  breech.  They 
held  on  to  the  muzzle  loaders,  but  breech-loading  rifles  which  did  not 


12 

use  the  metallic  cartridge  but  did  use  the  Minie  ball,  were  numerous, 
and  some  of  them  most  curious. 

What  is  said  to  be  the  first  successful  American  breech-loader,  was 
the  invention  of  Colonel  Hall  in  1811.  Some  of  the  cavalry  of  our 
army  were  armed  with  this  gun  as  early  as  1818  and  it  remained  in  use 
up  to  the  time  of  the  Mexican  War,  but  it  could  not  have  been  a  satis- 
factory weapon.  Its  most  interesting  feature  is  that  the  sights  are  not 
placed  along  the  middle  of  the  barrel,  but  to  one  side,  the  hammer 
obstructing  the  usual  line  of  sight.  It  was  constructed  both  with  the 
flint  and  the  percussion  lock. 

Another  odd  breech-loader  which  I  have  here  and  which  is  said  to 
have  been  used  in  the  Mexican  War  is  interesting  because  of  the  ingen- 
uity and  simplicity  of  its  breech,  and  also  because  it  uses,  as  far  as  I 
can  learn,  for  I  never  found  anyone  who  could  explain  its  action,  what 
was  called  the  continuous  primer.  The  breech  block  is  drawn  back  by 
a  lever  lifting  up  and  backwards  in  a  manner  somewhat  similar  to  the 
Winchester  action  reversed,  while  the  priming,  which  was  probably  a 
series  of  small  discs  of  fulminate  placed  upon  a  paper  strip,  was  con- 
tained in  a  circular  box  beneath  the  hammer,  and  was  forced  out  by 
cocking  the  hammer  which,  oddly  enough,  is  on  the  side  of  the  gun  and 
cocks  back  horizontally. 

On  pulling  the  trigger  one  disk  was  cut  off  and  driven  against  the 
nipple  by  the  hammer. 

The  gun  is  a  rifled  cavalry  carbine,  of  large  caliber  and  made  in 
1847.  It  is  stamped  with  the  letters  "U.  S.  N."  and  the  name  "Jenks," 
who  invented  and  patented  it  in  1838.  The  pull  of  the  trigger  is  ter- 
rific, and  it  is  still  in  good  condition. 

One  of  the  first  and  best  of  the  American  breech-loaders  was  the 
Sharp's  carbine.  When  first  introduced,  this  gun  was  used  wilh  a 
made-up  linen  cartridge  ignited  by  a  percussion  cap,  but  later  a  patent 
primer  was  applied,  and  still  later  a  metallic  cartridge  was  used  with  an 
exploding  pin.  The  breech-block  falls  by  lowering  the  trigger  guard, 
exposing  the  chamber.  The  linen  cartridge  being  inserted,  the  block  is 
raised,  its  sharp  upper  edge  cutting  off  the  end  of  the  cartridge  and 
exposing  the  powder  to  the  spark  from  the  nipple.  This  rifle  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  United  States  government  in  1850  and  highly  recom- 
mended. A  portion  of  the  English  cavalry  was  armed  with  it  in  1857. 
Its  defect  was  the  old  one  of  breech-loaders — escape  of  gas,  and  rapid 
fouling  of  the  breech. 


13 

By  1859  the  former  arms  of  the  United  States  Army  had  been 
entirely  superceded  by  the  Springfield  rifle  and  rifled  musket. 

This  was  the  result  of  the  recommendation  for  adoption  in  1855 
by  Jefferson  Davis,  Secretary  of  War,  of  the  following  arms : 

Caliber  69  Rifled  Musket,  Model  1822,  Altered. 

Caliber  69  Rifled  Musket,  Model  1842,  Altered. 

Caliber  58  Rifled  Musket,  Model  1855,  New. 

Caliber  58  Rifle,  Model  1841,  Altered. 

Caliber  58  Rifle,  Model  1855,  New. 

Caliber  58  Pistol  Carbine,  Model  1855,  New. 

The  Muskets  Models  1822  and  1842  were  bored  as  rifles,  while  the 
rifle  model  1841  was  re-rifled  and  the  caliber  increased  from  54  to  58. 
All  of  these  arms  were  fitted  with  Maynard  Magazine  Primers.  The 
model  1842  musket  and  rifle  were  the  first  regulation  service  arms  of 
the  United  States  with  the  percussion  lock. 

At  a  range  of  300  yards  the  highest  point  of  the  trajectory  of  the 
new  Springfield  Model  1855^  was  not  quite  four  feet.  It  resembled 
strongly  in  appearance  and  shooting  qualities  the  English  Tower  and 
Enfield  rifles,  and  was  second  to  no  muzzle-loader  in  its  efficiency. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War,  then,  the  United  States 
forces,  what  there  was  of  them,  were  for  the  most  part  armed  with  this 
Springfield  rifled  musket  or  rifle,  of  which  this  is  an  example.  The 
Maynard  primer  had,  however,  disappeared.  The  patriotic  efforts  of 
Secretary  Floyd  had  been  successful  in  depleting  the  government 
arsenals  of  over  one  hundred  thousand  muskets,  so  that  at  the  outset 
at  least  the  Confederate  army  was  armed  as  well  as  or  better  than  the 
Federal.  The  arsenals  were  set  to  work,  however,  with  great  energy 
and  soon  began  to  turn  out  rapidly  the  rifles  necessary  to  arm  our  new 
army  of  volunteers.  Not  only  was  a  strong  effort  made  in  this  direc- 
tion, but  various  bodies  of  state  troops  were  encouraged  to  provide 
themselves  with  arms  of  their  own  choosing  and  purchase.  Invention 
also  was  greatly  stimulated  by  inducements  offered  by  the  Government 
and  innumerable  new  styles  of  breech-loaders,  and  several  magazine 
rifles  made  their  appearance.  Of  these  latter,  the  Spencer  rifle  was 
beyond  question  the  most  effective  and  was  the  first  really  successful 
magazine  rifle  ever  introduced.  It  was  patented  in  1860,  and  in  that 
same  year  offered  to  the  United  States  Government^  and  highly  recom- 
mended. Some  of  the  volunteers  were  armed  with  it  and  rendered 
good  service  throughout  the  war.     It  was  considered  that  one  man 


14 

armed  with  the  Spencer  rifle  was  equal  to  six  provided  with  the  muzzle- 
loader.  The  Confederates  viewed  it  as  a  diabolical  weapon,  which  was 
loaded  on  Sunday  and  fired  throughout  the  week.  The  magazine  was 
in  the  stock  of  the  rifle,  the  metallic  cartridges  being  dropped  into  an 
opening  in  the  butt,  and  by  a  spiral  spring  and  lever  action  of  the  trig- 
ger guard,  forced  one  by  one  into  the  barrel.  The  lever  action  also 
ejected  the  empty  shells  of  the  exploded  cartridges.  It  was  found  that 
this  rifle  could  be  fired  7  times  in  10  seconds,  but  only  15  times  in  one 
minute,  as  it  took  some  time  to  re-load. 

Other  rifles  that  were  in  more  or  less  use  by  the  Federal  forces 
were  the  Enfield  and  Tower  patterns,  English  rifles  of  the  type  of  the 
Springfield,  the  Ballard,  Henry  and  other  effective  breech-loaders,  soon 
to  be  noted  and  various  early  model  flint-locks  altered  to  the  percussion 
lock. 

The  Peabody  rifle,  also  an  American  invention,  was  recommended 
by  the  Government  in  1862.  ^  It  was  the  fore-runner  in  principle  of  the 
famous  Henry,  Martini,  Wesley  Richards  and  Winchester  rifles,  the 
latter  of  which  is  hereafter  described. 

One  company  of  New  Hampshire  sharpshooters,  under  a  Captain 
Jones,  was  armed  with  the  Berdan  rifle,  a  telescopic  sight,  small  caliber 
muzzle  loader.  It  was  a  fine  rifle  but  scarcely  suited  to  long  marches 
and  rapid  assaults,  as  it  is  variously  stated  by  authors  to  have  weighed 
from  32  to  40  pounds.  About  nightfall  after  a  long  day's  march  or 
fight,  the  bold  sharpshooter  must  have  thought  he  had  an  elephant  on 
his  hands. 

Another  effective  and  ingenious  weapon  was  the  colt  revolving 
rifle  constructed  after  the  plan  of  Colt's  famous  revolvers  and  weigh- 
ing in  the  neighborhood  of  15  pounds.  Although  a  heavy  gun,  it  was 
highly  thought  of  both  by  our  officers  and  the  British.  This  particular 
gun  was  used  on  Jhe  Mississippi  fleet  by  a  Cincinnatian. 

Many  other  breech-loaders  received  consideration  by  our  Govern- 
ment^ both  before  and  during  the  Civil  War,  but  to  enumerate  them 
would  take  up  more  time  than  is  allotted  to  me  this  evening. 

Among  the  best  of  them  were  the  Smith,  Gallagher,  Merrill  and 
Burnside  patents,  all  of  which  I  have  here.  The  latter  was  the  inven- 
tion of  General  Burnside  and  was  declared  in  1857  and  1858  by  a  Com- 
mission of  Army  Officers  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  breech-loader  sub- 
mitted. 

A  few  of  the  Sharps,  Burnside,  Merrill  and  Colt  type  were  issued 
to  our  troops  in  the  late  fifties,  by  way  of  experiment. 


15 

But  in  1861  the  regulation  arm  of  the  United  States  Infantry  was 
the  Springfield  rifled  musket  or  rifle,a  good  weapon,  but  with  certain 
defects.  Like  all  muzzle  loaders  it  was  slow  in  loading,  if  it  missed 
fire  either  the  gun  was  taken  apart  to  remove  the  defective  cartridge 
or  the  soldier  in  his  excitement  rammed  in  charge  after  charge  on  top 
of  it  and  thought  he  was  firing  each  time  he  pulled  the  trigger.  There 
was  some  years  ago  in  the  Governor's  Island  Museum  a  barrel  of  one 
of  these  rifles  into  which  the  soldier  had  thus  rammed  six  or  seven  cart- 
ridges, the  first  one  finally  exploding,  bursting  the  barrel  and  probably 
killing  the  man. 

But  it  was  with  this  weapon  that  the  Civil  War  was  won,  and  our 
nation  preserved  as  one  nation.  Therefore,  though  its  modern  success- 
ors make  it  look  clumsy  and  archaic,  it  holds  the  place  of  honor  in  our 
grateful  memories. 

Since  that  war  and  through  the  impetus  given  by  it  and  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  to  the  invention  and  improvement  of  military 
weapons,  the  gun-makers  have  been  earnestly  striving  to  turn  out  a 
breech-loading  magazine  rifle  of  such  simple  action  and  easy  loading 
capacity  that  the  most  ignorant  private  could  handle  it  intelligently. 
Speed  was  to  be  largely  sacrificed  t6  simplicity.  As  a  first  step  our 
Government,  in  1865,  converted  its  Springfield  muzzle-loader  into  a 
single-fire  breech-loader  by  cutting  out  a  portion  of  the  barrel  and  at- 
taching a  breech  action  which,  with  few  changes,  is  the  same  as  sup- 
plied to  our  volunteers  during  the  late  Spanish  War.  It  was,  down  to 
1892,  the  regulation  arm  of  our  army — the  caliber  being  gradually 
decreased. 

In  1866  the  Winchester  Arms  Company  began  to  turn  out  its 
wonderful  magazine  rifle  which  both  as  a  military  and  as  a  hunting 
rifle,  is  a  marvel  in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  man.  It  is  on  the  "pump- 
handle"  principle,  the  trigger  guard  being  lowered  ejects  the  empty 
cartridge,  cocks  the  trigger,  and  on  being  raised  again  puts  a  fresh 
cartridge  in  place  ready  for  firing.  The  magazine  is  beneath  the  whole 
length  of  the  barrel  and  holds  from  9  to  16  cartridges  according  to  their 
length.  It  can  be  discharged  iii  nearly  as  many  seconds  as  there  are 
cartridges,  and  it  may  also  be  used  as  a  single-fire  gun,  by  cutting  off 
the*  magazine.  It  is  this  rifle,  which  in  the  hands  of  the  gentle  wards 
of  the  Nation,  our  Western  Indians,  annihilated  Custer  and  sent  many 
a  peaceful  settler  or  blue-coated  soldier  of  Uncle  Sam  to  the  White- 
man's  happy  hunting  grounds.  The  later  model,  30  caliber  Winchester 
is  one  of  the  most  powerful  weapons  in  the  world,  but  the  complexity 


16 
of  its  parts  and  intricacy  of  its  mechanism  make  it  too  delicate  a 
weapon  to  be  handled  intelligently  by  the  ordinary  rank  and  file.  And 
now  this  Company,  and  also  other  manufacturers  are  putting  out  auto- 
matic and  self-loading  guns.  7'his  gun  is  one  of  the  latter  type.  The 
recoil  ejects  the  empty  shell  and  inserts  a  fresh  cartridge  so  that  the 
gun  is  always  loaded  till  the  magazine  is  empty. 

Without  going  further  into  this  type  of  rapid  fire  magazine  guns 
of  which  the  Winchester  is  the  best,  I  will  come  at  once  to  the  rifles  in 
which  the  events  of  the  Spanish  War  have  especially  interested  us. 

First  there  is  the  Springfield  rifle,  so  called,  with  which  our  volun- 
teers were  armed  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  late  Spanish-American 
War,  and  of  which  some  mention  has  already  been  made.  The  action 
of  the  breech  block  is  so  simple  that  it  hardly  needs  description,  and 
besides  practically  this  same  breech  has  been  used  in  converting  the  old 
Springfield  into  a  breech-loader  since  1865.  The  merits  and  defects  of 
this  gun  have  been  so  frequently  discussed  of  late  that  they  need  but 
be  mentioned.  It  is  an  effective  gun  at  a  comparatively  short  range, 
its  breech  block  is  ingenious  and  perfectly  safe,  and  very  simple,  but 
its  cartridge  used  the  lead  bullet  and  black  smoky  powder,  it  was  a 
single-firer  and  was  of  45  caliber,  which  is  too  large  according  to  the 
latest  ideas  of  warfare. 

The  use  of  the  black  powder  made  the  Springfield  a  dangerous 
weapon  for  friend  as  well  as  foe,  as  was  seen  in  the  Santiago  campaign 
and  has  been  demonstrated  in  the  Philippines  since.  The  discharge  of 
a  Springfield  was  the  signal  for  a  concentration  of  the  Spanish  musk- 
etry and  artillery  upon  the  white  puff  of  smoke,  with  the  result  that  the 
regulars  violently  objected  to  being  placed  close  to  the  volunteers.  As 
rapidly  as  possible  the  Government  displaced  these  Springfield  rifles 
with  the  Krag-Jorgensen. 

Another  single-shot  gun  which  this  war  brought  prominently  to 
our  notice  was  the  Remington.  Probably  no  gun  of  recent  years  has 
had  the  world-wide  use  that  this  has,  except  the  Mauser.  Its  strength, 
simplicity  and  ease  of  manipulation  have  made  it  a  favorite  among 
many  peoples. 

"The  United  States  Magazine  Rifle,"  or  as  it  is  erroneously  called, 
the  "Krag-Jorgensen"  is  an  invention  of  two  Swedes,  Krag  and  Jor- 
gensen,  who  patented  the  weapon  and  disposed  of  the  patent  to  the 
United  States  in  1892.  It  was  until  recently  the  regulation  arm  of  the 
United  States  Army,  and  was  manufactured  at  the  Springfield  arsenal 
and  so  stamped.    The  name  Krag-Jorgensen  in  no  place  appears  upon 


17 

it.  Since  the  adoption  of  the  new  rifle,  these  have  been  turned  over  to 
the  State  troops  in  large  part. 

The  "Krag-Jorgensen,"  as  I  will  call  it,  however,  is  a  magazine 
rifle,  firing  five  times  without  reloading,  and  has  the  bolt  system  of 
breech,  which  was  first  practically  introduced  in  the  Prussian  needle 
gun  in  1841.  It  may  be  interesting  in  this  connection  to  compare  the 
bolt  action  of  this  French  Chassepot  Model  1866,  the  French  gun  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  an  improvement  in  every  way  upon  the  Prus- 
sion  needle  gun,  which  by  the  way,  was  a  Frenchman's  invention.  The 
Krag  is  loaded  by  dropping  five  cartridges  into  the  magazine  in  the 
side  of  the  breech.  A  spring  arm,  called  the  "follower,"  forces  them 
into  place  one  by  one  as  the  breech  bolt  is  turned  and  drawn  back,  the 
empty  shell  being  ejected  by  a  small  lever  which  is  also  worked  by  the 
breech  block  or  bolt.  It  is  caliber  30,  is  sighted  up  to  1,900  yards,  and 
can  be  fired  as  a  single  shot  rifle  at  the  rate  of  42  shots  to  the  minute. 
It  has  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,200  feet  per  second  as  campared  with 
1,300  of  the  45  caliber  Springfield,  and  the  twist  of  rifling  is  one  turn 
in  10  inches.  The  needle  which  strikes  the  cartridge  cap  works  through 
the  hollow  bolt  and  is  acted  upon  by  a  spiral  spring  which  drives  it  for- 
ward upon  pulling  the  trigger.  The  magazine  can  be  cut  off  by  a  stop, 
a  cartridge  placed  in  the  chamber  with  the  hand,  and  the  gun  used  as  a 
single-firer.  The  ordinary  way  to  use  the  gun  is  to  load  the  magazine 
full,  cut  it  off,  and  use  the  gun  as  a  single-firer,  reserving  the  magazine 
for  some  emergency  when  it  is  necessary  to  fire  rapidly.  The  bullet 
has  a  cupro-nickel  steel  jacket  enclosing  a  core  of  tin  and  lead  composi- 
tion. In  range,  flatness  of  trajectory  and  accuracy  there  is  little 
to  choose  between  the  Krag-Jorgensen,  the  Lee  Straight  Pull  and  the 
Mauser,  but  I  have  heard  some  of  our  army  officers  and  privates  com- 
plain of  bad  points  in  the  Krag.  They  considered  the  mechanism  some- 
what intricate,  that  there  were  too  many  parts  and  that  it  was  difficult 
to  take  the  gun  apart.  The  latter  is  probably  a  good  point  as  it  prevents 
the  soldier  from  tinkering  with  his  gun.  A  special  book  of  instructions 
as  to  the  mechanism  of  the  gun  was  issued  by  the  Government  to  the 
officers,  so  that  they  might  instruct  their  men  in  the  use  and  manage- 
ment of  it. 

The  gun  used  by  our  Navy  during  the  Spanish  War  was  the 
Lee  Straight  Pull,  a  fine  magazine  rifle  manufactured  by  the  Win- 
chester Arms  Co.  It  represents  about  the  limit  in  smallness  of  caliber 
in  military  arms,  being  only  a  little  over  23  caliber.  It  loads  from 
above  and  is  practically  equal  in  efficiency  to  the  Mauser  or  Krag. 


18 
The  bolt  action  is  very  simple,  being  a  straight  backward  pull,  requir- 
ing but  two  movements  to  cock  and  load  the  piece,  as  compared  with 
three  in  the  Krag,  Mauser  and  Springfield. 

The  velocity  of  the  bullet  of  this  gun  at  fifty  feet  from  the  muzzle 
is  2,500  feet  per  second.  At  a  distance  of  fifteen  feet  the  bullet  will 
penetrate  fifty-three  inches  of  pine  boards,  while  at  a  range  of  three 
hundred  yards  it  rises  only  about  nine  inches  above  a  horizontal  line. 
This  is  a  fair  example  of  the  power  of  these  modern  army  weapons. 

The  Mauser  rifle  is,  in  the  opinion  of  many  experts,  a  superior 
weapon  to  the  Krag-Jorgensen.  It  is  a  German  invention  of  many 
years  standing,  in  fact  an  outgrowth  of  the  old  needle  gun.  The  prin- 
ciple of  firing  and  manipulating  the  breech-bolt  is  practically  the  same 
as  the  Krag,  but  in  several  respects  the  action  is  much  simpler  and 
easier  understood.  The  magazine  is  especially  simple  and  open,  con- 
sisting of  nothing  but  a  zig-zag  spring,  which  can  be  removed  in  an 
instant  with  the  assistance  of  a  nail  or  small  stick.  When  the  magazine 
is  empty,  that  fact  is  indicated  by  the  stoppage  of  the  breech-block  on 
attempting  to  push  it  forward  for  firing.  The  breech-block  may  be 
entirely  removed  with  great  ease  for  examination  or  repair,  or  disab- 
ling the  gun  in  case  it  must  be  abandoned,  by  pulling  out  a  small  arm 
on  the  left  of  the  breech.  But  one  of  the  best  features  of  the  Mauser  is 
its  simplicity  and  rapidity  in  loading.  Five  cartridges  are  held  at  their 
bases  by  a  brass  piece  called  a  "clip."  One  end  of  the  "clip"  is  placed 
in  a  notch  in  the  top  of  the  breech  and  with  the  hand  the  cartridges  are 
pressed  down  into  the  magazine.  The  action  of  closing  the  breech 
pushes  the  first  cartridge  into  place  for  firing.  Should  the  magazine  get 
out  of  order  it  may  be  removed  or  cut  ofif  and  the  gun  used  as  a  single 
firer.  Should  the  spiral  spring  in  the  bolt  break,  a  new  one  may  be 
placed  in  position  in  less  than  a  minute.  The  Mauser  has  been  kept  up 
to  date  by  constant  improvements.  It  is  now  the  regulation  arm  of 
more  than  half  a  dozen  nations. 

This  particular  Mauser  was  surrendered  by  the  Spanish  at  Santiago 
and  sold  by  our  Government  with  thousands  of  others  to  any  one  who 
wished  to  buy  one.  It  is  called  the  Spanish  Mauser,  is  stamped  with 
the  Spanish  arms,  and  was  manufactured  for  Spain  at  Berlin,  Germany. 
It  is  in  perfect  condition  as  far  as  its  shooting  qualities  are  concerned. 

The  new  model  Springfield  recently  adopted  by  the  United  States 
is  a  beautiful  and  powerful  weapon.  The  model  1902  first  adopted  has 
been  altered  in  some  respects,  and  it  is  now  one  of  the  most  effective  of 
high  power  rifles.    It  is  a  30  caliber  bolt  gun  with  central  magazine  and 


19 

is  loaded  from  above  with  five  cartridges  from  a  clip  which  is  ejected 
by  the  forward  motion  of  the  bolt.  The  barrel  has  four  grooves  with 
one  turn  in  eight  inches."  The  cartridges  and  bullets  are  practically  of 
the  same  model  as  those  of  the  Krag  except  that  the  Springfield  cart- 
ridge has  a  groove  instead  of  a  rim  about  the  base,  and  the  bullet  i<, 
much  sharper  at  the  point.  The  4-5  grains  of  high  power,  smokeless 
powder  which  the  cartridge  contains,  give  a  pressure  of  4,200  pounds 
per  scjuare  inch  and  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,300  feet  per  second,  while  at 
the  distance  of  1,000  yards  the  velocity  has  been  determined  to  be  95S 
feet  per  second.  With  the  magazine  empty  the  gun  mav  be  used  as  a 
single  loader  by  the  insertion  of  one  cartridge  at  a  time.  An  interesting 
and  valuable  feature  of  the  gun  is  the  wind-gauge.  A  graduated  scale 
at  the  base  of  the  sight  and  a  thumb  screw  enable  the  soldier  to  alter 
the  line  of  sight  so  as  to  scientifically  allow  for  the  drift  of  the'  bullet 
due  to  a  cross  wind.  4"his  has  had  a  wonderful  effect  upon  the  marks- 
manship of  our  men.  Armed  \\ith  this  gun  our  army  team  not  only 
won  the  international  rifie  shoot  against  the  r)ritish  and  other  teams, 
but  also  broke  all  records  for  these  contests. 

With  the  adoption  of  such  arms,  and  the  corresponding  advances 
made  in  heavy  ordinance  and  raj)id  fire  and  machine  guns,  war  between 
two  evenly  matched  and  equally  well  armed  nations  has  become  a 
(|uestion  of  long  distance  shooting,  of  lying  behind  cover  and  blazing 
away  at  nothing,  for  there  is  no  smoke  to  indicate  the  location  of  your 
enemy.  There  is  nothing  more  interesting  in  the  history  of  the  recent 
Russo-Japanese  War  than  the  description  of  the  Japanese  trenches 
before  I'ort  Arthur.  The  Russian  guns  swept  fields  that  were  abso- 
lutely bare,  not  a  particle  of  raw  earth,  or  a  blade  of  grass  disturbed, 
indicated  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  yet  in  those  fields,  within  a  few 
hundred  yards  of  the  fortification,  lay  concealed  an  army  of  sixty 
thousand  men.  Four  miles  back  the  great  Japanese  naval  guns  roared 
and  leaped  upon  their  concrete  foundations,  sending  their  immense 
steel  shells  over  a  mountain  range  into  the  doomed  fortress. 

Infantry  tactics  must  be  adopted  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  cavalry, 
in  actual  battles,  for  no  cavalry  in  column  or  mass  formation  could  live 
five  minutes  under  the  fire  of  Maxim,  Xordenfeldt  or  Gattling  guns, 
backed  by  the  Mauser,  Springfield,  Lee  Metford  or  Winchester. 

Neither  can  -the  enormous  expense  of  war  be  longer  tolerated,  and 
it  begins  to  appear  that  by  perfecting  weapons  of  destruction  we  are 
doing  more  and  more  to  ensure  perpetual  peace. 


1^0 


APPENDIX.       . 

The  following-  named  weapons  were   displa\ed  before  the  Com- 
niandery  as  illustrations  to  the  paper : 

•.       Flint-lock  'Musket— 1809— Springfield-Charleville   Model. 
•        Early  r>ackwoods  Rifle — Kentucky  ]\lodel. 

Harper's  Ferry  Model — 1814. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle.  Flail's  Patent — 1811. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle.  Jenks'  Patent — 1838. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle,  Sharp's  Patent— 1852. 

Springfield  Rifled  :\Iusket— :Model  ISCJl. 
■Spencer  ^Magazine  Breech  Loader — ]\Iodel  18(51. 

English  "Tower"  Rifle— :\Iodel  1861. 

Colt  Revolving  Rifle— Model  1857. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle — Burnside  Patent — Alodel  1856. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle — Smith's  Patent — Modd  1857. 

Breech-Loading  Rifle — Gallagher's  Patent — Alodel  1860. 

Breech -Loading  Rifle— rMer  rill's  Patent — Model  1858. 

Winchester  Repeating  Rifle — Model  1873. 

Winchester  Self-Loading  Rifle— Model  1905. 

Springfield  Single-Shot  Breech  Loader — Caliber  .45. 

Remington  Single  Shot  Breech  Loader  (Sporting  Model). 

U.  S.  Springfield  Rifle  (Krag)— Model  1895. 

French  Chassepot — Bolt  Gun — Model  1866. 

Spanish  Mauser — Model  1896. 

Lee  Straight  Pull  (U.  S.  Navy)— Alodel  1898. 

U.  S.  Springfield  (Improved  Dec,  1907)— :\Iodel  1903. 


PISTOLS. 

Ancient  Flint-Lock  Pistol. 

Early  Percussion-Lock,  Muzzle-Loading  Pistol. 

Spies  (London)  Percussion-Lock,  ]\Iuzzle  Loading  Pistol. 

Colt  Revolver— Model  1850. 

Williamson's  Six-Shooter,  1864   (Copper-Nipple  Cartridge) 

Colt's  New  Armv  Revolver. 


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